


You're My Kind of Poison

by savanting



Series: Kashimalin's 50 Kisses Challenge [25]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Breakup, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Kissing, Making Out, One Shot, Opposites Attract, POV Audrey Rose (Disney), Post-Canon, Post-Descendants 3, Soft Harry Hook, old flame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:07:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28265151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting
Summary: Audrey learns what it's like to pay for her mistakes in the most literal way possible. One-Shot.[Prompt 27: Kisses exchanged while one person sits on the other's lap.]Using Kashimalin's 50 kisses prompt list: https://www.google.com/amp/s/kashimalin-fanfiction.tumblr.com/post/178524845380/50-kiss-prompts/amp
Relationships: Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants), Doug/Evie (Disney: Descendants), Harriet Hook & Harry Hook, Harry Hook & Audrey Rose, Harry Hook & Uma, Harry Hook/Audrey Rose, Hercules/Megara (Disney)
Series: Kashimalin's 50 Kisses Challenge [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023708
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	You're My Kind of Poison

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Disney's _Descendants_ franchise or anything relating to it.
> 
> AT LAST WE HAVE REACHED THE END OF THE KISS PROMPT CHALLENGE! WOO WOO!
> 
> @Five_seas gave me my favorite pairing (again), and I decided to save this one for last because - well, Audrey and Harry are fun to write. This fic is less a romantic fic than one that focuses on trying to make Audrey accountable for her actions. But I imagine she's also depressed and in a bad state. I mean, how would Auradon react to her after the events of _Descendants 3_? I think about that a lot, and I have different interpretations depending on which fic I'm writing. This one - well, it's another exploration of what happens when you've seen you can be "bad" and you don't know what to make of that consideration - if we want to get deep here.
> 
> I know my fic musings are different than a lot of _Descendants_ fans on here, but I hope some of my fellow fans are able to find something to like about this fic.
> 
> The link to the original kiss prompt list: https://www.google.com/amp/s/kashimalin-fanfiction.tumblr.com/post/178524845380/50-kiss-prompts/amp

What Audrey had not expected was that she would need to pay damages for the chaos she had caused while in possession of Maleficent’s scepter. While Auradon citizens were not exactly calling for her blood due to her treatment of the VKs, they _were_ looking for financial compensation for property damages relating to her use of unnecessary, not to mention violent, magic.

At first, when the ruling had come down from the Council, Audrey had looked at her mother as if it were a jest of some kind.

“You’re kidding, right?” she said, offering a tittering little laugh and waiting for her mother to join in on the joke. But Aurora was not smiling. In fact, she looked downright _furious_ for a woman who normally looked pleasant even when she was annoyed. “Mom, they can’t really do that, can they?”

“I’m afraid they can,” Aurora said, “and the decision was unanimous.”

Audrey felt another stab of shock. “ _What?_ You voted with them to make me pay a fine?”

Aurora’s eyes narrowed. “Do you realize it could have been worse? In my time, you might have been imprisoned in a dungeon or thrown out of Auradon. Do you really think the Council wasn’t fair in the decision?”

Audrey swallowed. “Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? I mean, what could there have been? A few broken windows?”

Aurora folded her arms across her chest. “Your father and I aren’t contributing anything to cover the damages, Audrey,” she said.

Suddenly, the amount of dresses, purses, and shoes in Audrey’s closet made her rethink all the times she had blown through her monthly stipend from her parents. Her bottom lip trembled. “Mother, I-”

One look from her mother, and Audrey stuttered to silence.

“It seems like you’ll be in need of a job in fast order,” Aurora said curtly, “and I have just the idea.”

*

It seemed that Audrey’s mother had a biting sense of humor: the “job” in question was a part-time gig at Pixie Hollow, a place where Audrey was regularly wiping down greasy tablecloths after parents and their children had finished eating pizza - or cleaning up in the arcade area where inevitably kids would vomit all over one of the machines they had been playing. Audrey was continually surprised that Tinker Bell had even allowed the licensing of the name of her birthplace for such an establishment.

Audrey didn’t even find herself being paid minimum wage: most of her pay came from tips, but one look from most parents - who immediately recognized her from footage on television - would usually result in a sneer of disgust as they tipped her little to nothing.

It didn’t help either that Audrey had carry-over customers from the Neverland Amusement Park - and one particular king had always been a fan of the carnival atmosphere of the place.

It wasn’t long before Audrey spotted Ben and some of his friends at Pixie Hollow. Her shift had just started, and she was taking orders from the lunch crowd - only to see Ben walk in, dressed all casual in a polo shirt and shorts, followed by the familiar faces of Mal, Evie, and Doug.

What was worse was that Meg, ex-girlfriend of Zeus's son Hercules, wouldn’t switch tables with her.

“Sorry, hon, I’m swamped as it is,” Meg said as she assembled a tray of drinks for a party of ten. “Take it for what it’s worth. You may get a good pity tip out of it.”

Audrey gnashed her teeth together. Would her pride even be able to survive this kind of humiliation?

But after a few steady breaths she took while hiding in the kitchen, she finally poised herself and walked out, notepad and pen ready in hand.

“Hi,” Audrey said, plastering a smile on her face, “what can I get you guys today?”

The owlish looks she received were even more mortifying than if she had been laughed at.

“Audrey,” Ben said, surprise coloring his tone, “since when do you work at Pixie Hollow?”

 _Ever since I was fined by your damn kingdom,_ she thought while mentally calculating how much of her dignity this was worth for a measly tip that wouldn’t even be going to the new season’s latest collection of strappy high-heels.

“Oh, you know, just needed a change of pace,” she said brightly as she tapped her pen against the paper. She tried to pretend she couldn’t sense Mal and Evie’s pitying looks lasering straight her way. “Do you want to hear our specials?”

“Just the usual,” Ben said. “The Adventurers’ Party package for the four of us.”

Audrey tried not to think how _the usual_ had once been ordered to be shared by her, Ben, Chad, and any number of their Auradon Prep friends. Now - he had a new girlfriend, a VK no less, with VK friends and their Auradon companions. Did he not sense the wrongness there that she did? It was as if he didn’t care.

Or, as he looked at her innocently, as if he were just completely oblivious to the fact that his old habits had just carried over to a new set of people.

 _Stop,_ she thought. _Don’t let it bother you._

Hadn’t she laid all that to rest the day Ben and Mal had finally apologized to her?

Maybe someday, once her fine was paid, she could make enough money to leave Auradon forever.

Corona was supposed to be nice.

Thankfully, her eyes didn’t start to grow wet until she was safely back behind the shelter of the kitchen door.

*

Ben wasn’t the only one to discover her not-so-well-kept secret: Harry Hook came across her after one particularly bad dinner rush where she had slipped and fallen on the remnants of a child’s spilled cherry slushie.

“Princess Audrey,” he said, eyeing her stained uniform right after she had walked out following the end of her shift. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”

She was sure he was being smart with her, but she couldn’t help smiling a tiny bit despite how embarrassing it was to be seen in such a state.

“Let me guess,” Audrey said. “You work at the amusement park.”

“I run the pirate ship ride,” he said. “Fitting, don’t you think?”

“I’m surprised the parents aren’t in an uproar over the safety of their kids on that ride,” Audrey said, somewhat snidely.

But Harry didn’t react to her barbs. In the months since they had first met officially, they had shared a few coffee dates here and there. Harry was accustomed to her acerbic type of wit.

“And they aren’t worried that you’re poisoning their pizza behind the scenes?” he asked breezily.

_You’ve got a point._

When she didn’t answer, Harry tapped his still-present hook against one of her wrists. “The working life getting to you, princess?”

Maybe it was the stress of being thrown into a more normal world. Maybe it was the added sting that she was still mired in bitterness even though she was supposed to be “good” again.

Or maybe it was because Harry wasn’t looking at her with pity or scorn like other people had as of late.

No matter what it was, she reached out and embraced him, holding on as if he were an anchor in a storm. And, miraculously, he didn’t push her away.

“All right, princess,” he said, gently rubbing circles into her back, “let’s get you home.”

*

Harry said the car was borrowed - “A loaner from my sister,” he added - but it smelled like him: leather, seawater, a hint of something like cinnamon. It was more comforting than it should have been.

“When did you get your driver’s license?” Audrey asked absently, and Harry actually looked a hint nervous.

“I haven’t taken the test yet,” he said, putting a finger to his lips, “but Uma and I have been practicing in empty parking lots.”

 _Sounds like you can take the VK out of the Isle but not the Isle out of the VK._ But she didn’t say that, instead trying to calm herself down as she tried not to drown in a pity party.

“Do you want to take a ride somewhere? Get your mind off things?”

Audrey shook her head. “I just - I just don’t want to go home right away.”

“Roger that,” Harry said, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel. That sound - the tip-tap, tip-tap - finally made Audrey reach out her hand to his just to get him to stop.

Then he looked over at her, his expression tense, and she felt bad. She had just gotten off a long shift, yet so had he. Did she really have the right to keep him when he would probably rather go to his apartment and rest?

“Sorry,” she said, drawing her hand away, “I’m being selfish. I can just take the bus-”

But Harry took the hand she had been ready to settle on her lap. “I don’t get to save damsels often. Don’t rob me of the chance to be the hero for once.”

A small smile came to her face. “Harry, you don’t need to be like a prince.”

“Who said I want to be a pansy prince? At least let me be the knight slaying dragons or something cool like that.”

 _That_ made her laugh, and he actually smiled.

“There we go,” he said, sounding a bit relieved. “That laugh might have just brought a pixie to life somewhere.”

She shook her head. “Only babies’ laughs do that.”

But Harry insisted, “Who’s the one whose family was once native to Neverland?”

She couldn’t argue with him on that one.

“Is there anything else that could cheer you up?” he asked after a silence had fallen between them.

She glanced at him, trying not to be mesmerized by his eyes, and his look shifted with an intensity that might have scared her if she hadn’t seen that same hunger in other boys’ faces before.

When he tried to look away, though, she drew his face back with her hand. His eyes questioned her, still sparking with something that she hadn’t seen directed her way in a while.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this - she always wanted to be swept off her feet, wooed, romanced - but she was the one to bridge the distance and bring her lips to his.

His answering kiss was all too clear about where his intentions might lead. She even crawled over the middle console to sidle onto his lap in the old car that smelled like an ocean retreat. With her eyes closed, she could imagine they were on a beach getaway somewhere rather than a car in some back parking lot. His hands settled on her hips, pushing her closer until the lines of their bodies pressed together.

Breathless, she whispered, “Am I still a damsel in distress?”

“Let’s just say we’re both distressed,” he murmured, barely breaking away to speak. “Makes it even.”

If she had been thinking clearly, she might have asked what was distressing him, but she didn’t want to ruin the moment.

This was a moment like magic captured in a bottle, like a potion concocted just to ensnare the senses.

Audrey didn’t want to be a villain - not anymore - but being bad?

Maybe there was more to that perspective than she had thought possible.

Being with Harry Hook - well, maybe they could be bad together.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Even princesses could lose themselves in the allure of the dark woods, the untold adventure.

But when Audrey resurfaced after these stolen moments - where Harry gently glided his hands over her as if she were a goddess to be worshiped by him alone - where would they be?

She couldn’t answer the question. She didn’t want to answer the question.

Whatever existed in the _after_ \- it might not be happy, it might not be wonderful, but it would be theirs to share, to break, to mend.

Every kiss until then? She would enjoy each and every one.


End file.
